Six of crows imagines

sleepless

Wylan had been tossing and turning for two hours in his makeshift bed, and yet he couldn't doze off. It was not so much the humidity of the room or the discomfort of the mattress that prevented him from sleeping, but rather the dull anguish that had not left him since his return to Ketterdam. In his mind came back incessantly the words of his father, harsh, cruel; but also the fear in Inej's eyes as it was taken away from them. He had been totally helpless in the face of this abduction, but was determined to do everything possible to bring the suli safe and sound among them. He had thus complied with all of Kaz's orders, even the most twisted. However, he was failing to accomplish the last one he had given her: to rest to regain strength.

Feeling that he would definitely achieve nothing despite all his zeal and goodwill, Wylan finally got up to win the outside. The cemetery may have been a depressing place but at least it could take the air quietly.

However, when he came out, he realized that he was not alone. Sitting on a grave was indeed Jesper. He definitely doesn't respect anything, not even the dead, Wylan mused. And yet, the vision of the zemini overlooking death in the moonlight had something that inexplicably attracted him. With his most confident step, Wylan came to sit beside him, trying to conceal the fact that desecrating a grave in this way undermined his Mercurian heritage. Jesper was not fooled, however, as he greeted him with a wry smile. This observation created in him a paradoxical effect; he was disappointed to be so transparent, but happy to find that Jesper knew him well enough to differentiate him from Kuwei by the way he moved, something his father himself had failed to do.

- Can't sleep?

It was a silly question, but Jesper made no mocking comment. He replied simply:

-No. Too much... Too many ideas. How about you?

-Similar.

A silence settled between them, filled with unspoken anxieties. To break it, Wylan said the first thing that came to mind.

- It's a beautiful starry night, isn't it? The constellation of the goat particularly shines.

"If you say so," Jesper replied, looking up at the vault.

- Don't you know how to recognize the stars? Wylan wondered.

- Are you aware that this is Mercurian knowledge, right? The zemini scoffed.

-Certainly... But I can teach you if you want.

Jesper accepted the proposal. They then spent the rest of the night immersed in the bright spots of the sky, forgetting for a time the fear they felt.